New Millennium Software International, L.L.C. v. Phantom Auto Inc.
- Vince Chhabria
- 3:23-cv-03278
- U.S. District Court · Northern District of California
- 3
New Millennium Software v. Phantom Auto: Judge Chhabria dismissed the patent claims with prejudice as covering ineligible abstract subject matter.
New Millennium Software International, L.L.C.’s claims under U.S. Patent No. 8,831,780 were dismissed with prejudice; Phantom Auto Inc. obtained dismissal of the claims.
What happened
New Millennium Software International, L.L.C. sued Phantom Auto Inc. over claims in U.S. Patent No. 8,831,780. The patent described a robot sending live video to a user who could remotely control the robot through networked servers.
The court decided that the patent covered the abstract idea of interactive telepresence—experiencing another place through a remotely controlled system. It found that the patent used ordinary computer components in conventional ways and did not explain a specific technical improvement that made the idea eligible for patent protection.
Judge Vince Chhabria granted Phantom Auto’s motion to dismiss and dismissed the claims with prejudice. The court said New Millennium had not requested permission to amend and that no amendment could fix the patent’s underlying eligibility problem.
The detailed version
- New Millennium Software International, L.L.C. v. Phantom Auto Inc. · No. 3:23-cv-03278
- Vince Chhabria
- Nov. 9, 2023
Background
New Millennium Software International, L.L.C. asserted claims from U.S. Patent No. 8,831,780 against Phantom Auto Inc. The patent claimed a system in which a robot acquires and transmits real-time video, a user receives the video and sends commands to control the robot remotely, and networked servers connect the user and robot.
Patent-Eligibility Analysis
The court applied the patent-eligibility framework for claims involving abstract ideas. It held that the patent was directed to the abstract idea of interactive telepresence: being in one place while experiencing the world as if present in another. The claims described the system’s components and functions in generic terms and did not explain how the components performed those functions in a particular way. The specification also described the invention at a high level and identified its central innovation as allowing a user to control a viewpoint in real time.
The court then found that the patent added no inventive concept to that abstract idea. It did not provide a sufficiently specific implementation or identify a technical problem that it overcame. Instead, it used conventional components—including a robot, video camera, personal mobile device, and computer servers—in their ordinary ways. Adding network control and applying interactive telepresence to personal devices did not make the claims patent-eligible.
New Millennium’s Arguments
The court rejected New Millennium’s arguments that remote control of a live video source was a technological solution to a technological problem, that the patent provided a low-cost virtual viewing experience using conventional personal devices, and that the patent’s arrangement of a user and camera-equipped robot communicating through servers was sufficiently specific. The court concluded that these features merely applied the abstract idea using generic technology.
Disposition
The court granted Phantom Auto’s motion to dismiss because the patent claims were directed to ineligible subject matter. It dismissed the claims with prejudice. New Millennium had not asked for leave to amend, and the court ruled that no amendment to the complaint could cure the problems with the underlying patent. Judge Vince Chhabria signed the order on November 9, 2023.
Read the full 3-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.